Hand flat knitting machines



March 20, 1962 H. SCHURICH HAND FLAT KNITTING MACHINES Fil ed Oct. 18, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. 1

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HAND FLAT KNITTING MACHINES Filed Oct] 18, 1957 s Sheets-Sheet 2 F ig.4 1

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HAND FLAT KNITTING MACHINES Filed Oct. 18, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 4 Hg. 6 Q42 INVENTOR 1 119012, io'rzlclv Uited States Patent Q 3,025,687 HAND FLAT KNITTING MACHINES Herbert Schiirich, Berlin-Frohnau, Germany, assignor to Karl Steinhof Apparatefabrik, Berlin-Reinickendorf,

Germany Filed Oct. 18, 1957, Ser. No. 691,097 Claims priority, application Germany Oct. 25, 1956 Claims. (Cl. 66-60) This invention relates to a hand flat knitting machine. Structurally and operationally two basically different types of hand flat knitting machines can be distinguished. In one type a yarn guide is traversed together with the lock, the object of the yarn guide being to place the yarn into the open needles. In conformity with this method of feeding the yarn the lock in the Lamb hand knitting machine comprises two stitch cams and one centrally arranged clearing cam.

The other type of hand flat knitting machine does not make use of a yarn guide and the yarn must be placed by hand across all the needles required for producing the width of the knitting. To permit this to be done all the needles must be in position for the reception of the yarn upon completion of each traverse of the lock. To this end the lock used in the latter machine differs in principle from that in 2. Lamb machine in that it contains only one central stitch cam with two clearing cams disposed on either side of the stitch cam.

It is the object of the present invention to construct a hand flat knitting machine which can be adapted for knitting by the one or the other method after making a few adjustments. The advantage of such a machine is its great adaptability to varying needs during the process of knitting and greater simplicity and speed in the production of the required knitted article. Lambs method of knitting with the help of a yarn guide will be preferred when it is desired to produce comparatively wide and long panels with the same kind of stitch pattern because the presence of the yarn guide permits the repetitive knitting process to be quickly performed without the need of manually placing the yarn over the needles after each traverse of the lock. On the other hand, it will be preferred to change over to knitting with out a yarn guide whenever it is desired to produce relatively complicated parts in a knitted fabric, such as necks, pockets, button holes, and slits. Moreover, this latter method of knitting will apply when producing patterns, more particularly coloured patterns produced by running in coloured yarns, because in such work feeding the yarn on to the needles by hand is in practice found more convenient. Some of these special knitting techniques cannot be adopted at all, unless the yarn guide has first been rendered inoperative.

To solve the problem contemplated by the invention it is proposed in a hand fiat knitting machine to make use of a specially designed lock comprising one pair of stitch cams and one pair of clearing cams so arranged and disposed that one of the clearing cams will be located between the two stitch cams and one of the stitch cams will be located between the two clearing cams, the stitch or clearing cam respectively at either end being adapted to be rendered inoperative in a manner which as such is already well known. This lock carries a yarn guide.

To permit the novel machine to be operated on the Lamb principle the outside clearing cam is rendered inoperative so that the needles in the region of the clearing cam will be pushed out of the needle bed far enough for the yarn guide to insert the yarn into the open needles. If it is desired to knit without the use of the yarn guide the clearing cam previously rendered inoperative is returned to operative position and the outside stitch cam rendered inoperative in its place. Moreover the "ice yarn is taken out of the yarn guide. By making the said adjustments on the lock all the needles will be in the fully extended position, i.e. in the cleared position, so that the yarn can be placed over all the needles by hand. Further details of the invention will be hereinafter explained with reference to the accompanying drawings which show illustrative embodiments of the invention. In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a view of the underside of a conventional lock constructed to operate on the principle of a Lamb hand knitting machine;

FIGURE 2 is the view of the underside of a conventional lock constructed to operate on the principle of a Steinhof machine;

FIGURE 3 is a cross section of a Steinhof hand knit ting machine in a modified form of construction incorporating sinkers;

FIGURE 4 is a view of the underside of a lock illustrative of the principle underlying the present invention;

FIGURE 5 is a side view of a sinker and a part side view of one of the needles, with the needle bed being omitted;

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken along the line VI-VI of FIGURE 8, the view looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIGURE 7 is a cross-sectional view along the lines of FIGURE 3, and showing a sinker with a bill-shaped top upper edge;

FIGURE 8 is a sectional view taken along line VIII VIII of FIG. 9, the view looking in the direction of the arrows; and,

FIGURE 9 is a view of the underside of the lock, showing the relationship of the components, and with certain parts being broken away.

Knitting machines which work on the principle of Larn'bs machine have locks-as shown in FIGURE 1 which comprise a central clearing cam 50 and stitch cams 51, 52, arranged on either side of the clearing cam.

Hand knitting machines constructed according to the Steinhof principle have a lock of basically different construction, as shown in FIGURE 2, in which the central cam 53 is a stitch cam instead of a clearing cam, as in the lock of a Lamb hand knitting machine. On either side of the stitch cam is one clearing cam 54 and 55 respectively, apart from other members that are not revelant to an understanding of the invention.

In a modified form of construction of the latter hand knitting machine special sinkers 13 are employed for casting off the loops. These work on pivots 59 in tricks 57 in the bed 58 and are urged downwards by springs 60, a cam 16 raising them into the position shown in dotted lines. Cam 16 is secured to the lock plate 62.

According to the invention the baseplate 1 of the lock (FIGURE 4) carries two stitch cams 2, 3 and two clearing cams 4, 5. The inside stitch cam 3 and the inside clearing cam 4 of each pair of stitch and clearing cams are firmly secured to the lock, whereas the outside stitch cam 2 and the outside clearing cam 5 are each mounted on a pin 6 and 7 respectively by means of which they can be rendered inoperative by their being raised against the plate of the lock into a position in which they will not engage the needle butts and are able to traverse the needle butts without touching them.

As shown in FIGURE 7, the pin 7 has a protruding end 7 to which is attached a knob or button 42. By moving the knob 4'2 in the direction indicated by the arrow 43, the earn 5 can be drawn in the direction of the plate 1, and this latter position of the cam is shown by dotted lines.

This lock can be usde either for hand fiat knitting machines incorporating sinkers which are tilted by a cam attached to the lock and which are urged into their normal depressed positions by springs, or for hand flat knitting machines incorporating sinkers which are tilted by the tension of the yarn in loop formation, and .which are likewise returned to normal position by the action of springs.

If the invention is to be applied to hand flat knitting machines with positively actuated sinkers, then these sinkers must be modified by extending the portion 9 (FIGURE 5) of the sinkers above their belly 8 forwardly in such a way that, when the needles 10 are pushed into their extreme outward position, as shown in FIGURE 5, the open latches 11 will be situated between the front edges 12 of the sinkers 13. This is necessary to ensure that, when feeding the yarn by hand, the yarn cannot be caught behind the open latch 11 and will slide down the front edges 12 of the extended portion 9 of the sinkers into the open hook. This necessity arises because in the described form of construction there is no additional draw. Moreover, in contradistinction to the otherwise frequently adopted method, the motion induced by the cam 16 on the lock must be such that loop formation will occur only on the edge of the sinker below its throat 15.

To permit the length of the loops to be adjusted the two stitch cams 2, 3 in hand knitting machines which make use of positively actuated sinkers, must be adjusted in the direction indicated by the double-headed arrow 17.

To this end the pins 6 and 6 which carry the stitch cams 2 and 3 respectively are each mounted on a sliding block 37 movable in a slot 38 cut into the lock plate transversely of the direction of traverse of the lock. The pins 6 and 6' are each provided with a knob 37. Each pin engages the forked end of an associated doublearmed lever 18, 19 fulcrumed on a fixed pivot pin 20, 21 respectively on the baseplate 1 of the lock. The two double-armed levers 18, 19 are deflected simultaneously by engagement with a common coupling pin 22 mounted on a sliding block 39 which is likewise arranged to be movable in a slot 40 at right angles to the direction of traverse of the lock. Engagement is efiected by the said pin working in a slot 23 and 41 in each of the doublearmed levers 18 and 19.

One of the said double-armed levers, in the illustrated example lever 18, extends beyond the slotted portion 23 and terminates in a fork which engages an adjusting pin 24 which is arranged to be moved by a spiral cam on a setting disc 25. The spiral cam provided for a setting disk is disclosed in my prior US. Patent No. 2,762,213, issued September 11, 1956, and in this regard attention is called to the components 108 and 109 shown in FIG- URES 15, 16, 17 and 19. The setting disc is located on the top of the lock 1 and is therefore shown in dotted lines in the drawing. By turning the disc 25 the cooperation of the spiral cam and the adjusting pin 24 causes the double-armed lever 13 and hence the second double-armed lever 19 to be deflected, and the levers in turn adjust the two stitch cams 2 and 3. The described form of construction in which the pins 6 and 6 are mounted on blocks slidable in transverse slots, and in which the ends of the double-armed levers 18 and 19 are forked and the two levers coupled by means of a slidable pin working in slots 23, 41 ensures that the two stitch cams will always be displaced by like amounts when the setting cam '25 is manipulated.

I claim 1. In a hand fiat knitting machine, a base plate, a lock on the base plate including a pair of stitch cams and a pair of clearing cams, with one of the stitch cams being located between two clearing cams and one of the clearing cams between two stitch cams to provide one outside stitch cam and one outside clearing cam, and means operably connected with the outside stitch cam and with the outside clearing cam mounting such cams for independent movement toward and away from the base plate, whereby when the outside stitch cam is moved against the base plate the other stitch cam and pair of clearing cams allow one type of knitting operation and when said outside stitch cam is moved away from the base plate and the outside clearing cam is moved against the base plate the pair of stitch cams and the other clearing cam allow another type of knitting operation.

2. A hand flat knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, further including means permitting the pair of stitch cams to be jointly adjusted transversely of said base plate, said means including a pair of elongated spaced apart slots extending transversely of the base plate, a block slidable in each of said slots with each block carrying a stitch cam, pin means on each stitch cam and linkage means interconnecting said pin means.

3. A hand flat knitting machine as claimed in claim 2, in which said linkage means includes a pair of levers, fixed pivots on the base plate on which said levers are fulcrumed, and a bifurcated end portion on each lever engaging the pin means carried by the respective stitch cams.

4. A hand fiat knitting machine as claimed in claim 3, further including means effecting the joint deflection of said levers, said means comprising a further block displaceable in a transversely extending slot in the base plate located between the pair of slots carrying the stitch cams, and a coupling pin on said displaceable block positioned in elongated slot means in each lever.

5. A hand flat knitting machine as claimed in claim 4, in which one of said levers is positioned with an extension located beyond said coupling pin, a setting disk having a spiral groove carried by said base plate, an adjusting pin operably associated with the spiral cam and a bifurcation in the free end of the extension engaging said adjusting pin.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS uam 

